{"id":60317,"date":"2020-01-30T14:39:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T06:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60317"},"modified":"2020-01-30T14:39:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T06:39:19","slug":"us-pres-trump-signs-long-awaited-north-american-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60317","title":{"rendered":"US Pres Trump signs long-awaited North American trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the new North American trade pact with Canada and Mexico into law, pronouncing a \u201cglorious future\u201d for US industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was another opportunity for Trump to tout successes in the midst of an impeachment trial where he is fighting charges of abuse of office and obstructing Congress. On Tuesday he announced a Middle East peace plan \u2014 rejected immediately by the Palestinians \u2014 and earlier this month he signed a truce in his trade war with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even if the new USMCA trade deal with America\u2019s neighbors was crafted in close consultation between Trump\u2019s Republicans and the Democrats, the president pointedly didn\u2019t invite any of the Democratic leaders to his big White House signing ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USMCA replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has long targeted, saying that it resulted in shipping US jobs abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, we are finally ending the NAFTA nightmare,\u201d he said at the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new deal change content rules on auto manufacturing, to boost US jobs, and requires higher salaries for some Mexican auto workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also makes changes to e-commerce, intellectual property protections and dispute settlement for investors, as well as imposing tougher labor provisions, requiring reforms to Mexico\u2019s laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico ratified the new agreement Dec 10, and Canada is expected to follow suit in coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Trump, the \u201ccolossal victory\u201d of USMCA fits neatly into his \u201cAmerica first\u201d campaign message ahead of a difficult November reelection fight and his current battle to see off impeachment over alleged abuse of power and obstruction of congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo decades of politicians ran for office vowing to replace NAFTA\u2026 yet when selected they never even tried,\u201d he told government members, lawmakers, union representatives and selected workers assembled at the White House\u2019s South Portico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not like those other politicians \u2014 I guess in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cI keep my promises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under NAFTA, \u201cwe lost our jobs, we closed our factories and other countries built our cars. But we changed that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe USMCA closed these terrible loopholes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who led Washington\u2019s negotiations both with USMCA and the recent truce in an even higher-stakes trade battle with China, called it a \u201cgreat, historic agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAFTA, he said, had been \u201chighly controversial from the start\u201d and many lawmakers subsequently \u201ccame to regret\u201d their support. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the new North American trade pact with Canada and Mexico into law, pronouncing a \u201cglorious future\u201d for US industry. It was another opportunity for Trump to tout successes in the midst of an impeachment trial where he is fighting charges of abuse of office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60317"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}